Young men sent to war to die in a political scheme concocted by crooks are also ‘victims of war’. War is not being committed on them? They may not have had a say - forced by threat off violence or the destitution of their loved ones. Of the original 500 convicts enlisted, only two were still alive after a few months, an abysmal survival rate of under 1%!
It is easier for us to see them all as the evil enemy, but that is too simple. If you cannot find pity for the cannon fodder of the war, then you are interpreting the events through an unapologetically political lens rather than a humanitarian one.